4 BULLETIN 383^ TJ, S. DEPARTMENT OF AGEICULTUEE. 



IMPROVED FETERITA. 



Improved feterita (S. P. I. No. 22329) was obtained from the 

 Sudan region of Africa in 1908, two years after the first successful 

 importation of this sorghum. Since its introduction it has been 

 improved by selection, and in field trials has shown a consistently 

 higher yielding power and more uniform growth than the earlier 

 importation (S. P. I. No. 19517), from which most of the feterita 

 now being grown in the United States has come. 



Description. — Stems medium to stout, five-eighths io three-fourtlis of an inch 

 in diameter, 5 to 6 feet tall, with little or no juice, only slightly sweet, and 

 having few tillers and only occasional branches ; leaves 10 to 12, averaging 2J 

 to 3 inches broad and 20 to 22 inches long; head ovoid to ellipsoidal, erect, 



Fig. 2. — Seed heads of the new varieties of sorghum, showing their size, shape, and color. 

 The measure (at the left) is graduated to inches and fractions thereof. From left to 

 right : White milo, Dwarf hegari. Improved feterita, Dwarf feterita, and Schrock kafir. 



medium compact, 3 to 3J inches in diameter, 7 to 7i inches long, usually well 

 filled, esserted 2 to 3 inches above the upper leaf sheath ; seeds circular in out- 

 line, slightly flattened, large, white, the upper two-thirds exposed from the glume, 

 shattering rather easily ; glumes ovate, black, slightly pubescent, not awned. 



Improved feterita, except for its greater uniformity and conse- 

 quent shorter growing season, averaging about 90 to 100 days, does 

 not differ from the ordinary feterita now so widely grown through- 

 out the Great Plains (fig. 1). Compared with Dwarf feterita, this 

 selection has a somewhat heavier stalk and appears to be more leafy, 

 giving it a higher forage value than Dwarf feterita under most con- 

 ditions (fig. 3). 



DWARF FETERITA. 



Dwarf feterita is a selection (F. C. I. No. 811) from S. P. I. No. 

 22329. The plant selected in 1909 by the senior writer at San An- 



